“ | I'm Yosemite Sam! The meanest, toughest, rip-roarin'-est, Edward Everett Horton-est hombre what ever packed a six-shooter! | „ |
~ Yosemite Sam in Hare Trigger |
Yosemite Sam is one of the main antagonists of the Looney Tunes franchise. He is Bugs Bunny's arch-nemesis that Bugs can duke it out with than Elmer Fudd and replace him as his new nemesis. In fact, he is the antagonist originally designed to be a replacement of Elmer Fudd when it became apparent that Bugs Bunny's continual defeat of the dimwitted hunter was verging on Bugs being a bully - so they went about creating a deliberately more villainious individual in the form of the explosive, obstreperous, uncontrollable, bad-tempered, impatient, and violent Yosemite Sam, though Yosemite Sam fared no better against Bugs Bunny and was soon to become hopelessly tricked by the rabbit continually as is the fate of all Looney Tunes villains. He becomes Bugs's other arch-nemesis and a better opponent to him.
Yosemite Sam is usually depicted as a human cowboy with a fiery temper and a hatred of rabbits to match. He is also very trigger-happy and will start firing his [trademark] revolvers, rifles, flintlock guns, etc. at any moment, he isn't the brightest of villains though - in fact he can probably be considered extremely stupid at times and is easily tricked into humiliating and/or painful situations. Like any good villain Yosemite Sam keeps coming back despite his continual failings but he doesn't seem to be any wiser for it, still falling for the same old tricks - of course this is a trait common to many cartoon villains, not just Yosemite Sam.
Sam has also been given names like Square-Deal Sam, Sea-goin' Sam/Sam the Pirate (his name in France instead of Yosemite Sam), Sam-Duke of Yosemite, Riff-Raff Sam, Sam Schultz, Sam Von Schmam the Hessian, Yosemite Sam of Outer Space, K'chutha Sa'am, and many other aliases.